In accordance with working class attitudes that flood the novel, strength of the family creates quiet a picture. Even though both family’s struggle through out the novel and there are many ups and downs, they do survive. The lambs are the family that prove this from the start, yet the pickles do not possess the strong bond of togetherness as the lambs do. This forms quite a contrast and seeing how the lambs do things all as one portrays how a family should be. When there is family unity there is happiness. This is why the pickles fall apart at first, going through life with there individual struggles, the lack of union in this family is quiet damaging and contributes to the problems of happiness and self fulfilment, yet later it is found, helping to bring everyone together:
“Take away the family and that’s it. There’s no point”
This quote supports the decision for Rose and Quick to stay on in cloudstreet with their family, it not only brings both the pickles and the lambs together but reinforces the concept that being together with your family is most important.
Having faith is also a value that is endorsed in Cloudstreet and although there are two different concepts of faith, both are valid. Firstly the lambs find their values in Gods’ Grace, he is a maker of miracles. Yet, after the accident with fish they are torn apart. They struggle to regain their faith and become God-fearing. The pickles’, on the other hand, believe in luck. This is often referred to the “shifty shadow’ of fate, lady luck and the hairy hand of God. Neither of these concepts can prevent grief and troubles but both create a meaning in which the families follow:
“Lady luck you rotten slut”
The pickles also believe that you cannot change your fate and you cannot run from it, it is what it is and often it is less then satisfactory. For them gambling is a way of life, and proves to create a not so simple concept of faith. Having the belief and actually believing in it prove to be two different things, as the lambs find throughout there struggles, and acceptance is the key to satisfaction.
Creating a story from such underprivileged family’s helps portray the concept of common yet amazing. In Cloudstreet, Winton did not want to show the easy way of Australian life. He wanted to show the truth. The battles and struggles with the happiness and highs. These include experiences of love, of hope and faith, new life, hardships, learning that the juice is worth the squeeze. This is what happenes when the corner store is opened, and Lesters’ idea is, although tough, very much worth it. When Quick and Rose become a couple and when Oriel and Dolly pack away the tent. All these events may appear to be very common and ordinary, but prove to the lives of these families to be amazing.
The values put forward in Cloudstreet, written by Tim Winton, are supported by the lifetime experiences and philosophies of the characters. Winton does this while at the same time, tells a tale of two, common yet great families. The importance of family, faith, gender and class association and realising that the smallest things in life are the greatest are the values that make up the value system within the novel. Within this presents our challenge of trying to comprehend the values of the society that we are reading about. The struggles and hardships that characters go through in the story only provides us with a clearer understanding to family and why unity and love will produce not only happiness, but also self satisfaction. Making life worthwhile does not mean that you must do great things, it means you have to feel good about what you do, do, and making the juice worth the squeeze.
